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“I do,” he said. “You’ve been home a few weeks now. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors.”
He said nothing further, but the knowledge of what he referred to hung between them. Abby met his stare, thinking about how he led her father to ruin. He probably felt no guilt about Caleb’s death. His eyes never wavered, and she knew it was another test. He was no doubt waiting for her to crack. Abby’s heart pounded so hard she thought it would explode. Visions of herself reaching across the table to wrap her fingers around his neck played in her mind. How dare he bring up her father, even indirectly? The bastard. Drawing on years of experience of hiding her true feelings, she kept her features disciplined and betrayed no emotion.
“Are you by any chance referring to my father, Damian?”
“You know I am.”
“Maybe now isn’t the time to have that discussion.”
“But it needs to be addressed at some point, don’t you think? No time better than the present.”
Damian was the epitome of cool and calm even as he brought up the sensitive subject. Abby, on the other hand, struggled to maintain her composure. “Fine.” Squaring her shoulders, she maintained eye contact. “If you bought out a company that was on the edge of ruin, how does that make you dark? It was just business. Wasn’t it?” He didn’t answer. He merely lifted his glass to his lips, those maddening, dark eyes still on her. She had to direct the conversation away from the path it was heading. Fast. Or she would likely stab him with a butter knife or throw her wine in his face. “I’m surprised that you’re familiar with the classics.”
“I read,” he said.
“You don’t strike me as a romance kind of man.”
“To be honest, my mother forced me to read widely. More than a few classics and romances ended up in my hands over the years.”
Briefly forgetting that she hated him, Abby smiled. “It’s sweet that you read just to please your mom.”
Damian snorted. “Nothing sweet about it. Reading was my punishment when I misbehaved. Very few teenage boys want to read Romeo and Juliet, trust me. I had to sit in our living room under my mother’s supervision and read every word of whatever book she chose. Then, there would be a quiz after. It was cruel and unusual punishment to a boy in his teenage years. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized the value of being well read and felt immense gratitude toward my mother.”
Her giggles surprised even her as she imagined a teenage Damian with his nose reluctantly buried in Shakespeare. His mother sounded like a wise woman, who cared a great deal about him. It was more than Abby could say about her own mother. “I bet you were punished quite a bit.”
“Of course. I was a scallywag who constantly sent up my mother’s blood pressure.”
“Scallywag? Who says scallywag?”
He grinned. “My mother.”
“Are you two close?”
“We are. It was just the two of us for a long time.
Abby’s exhale was inaudible. What was she doing fishing for details about Damian that made him likable? The more she liked him, the harder it would be to hurt him. She tore her eyes away from him and surveyed the restaurant. It was one she was familiar with. A very nice and ridiculously expensive place that her family frequented for special occasions when she was younger. Suddenly, she was bombarded with too many emotions, making it impossible to hide all of them.
“You seem upset,” Damian said.
“This place brings back memories. My dad used to bring us here. A few times when I was a teenager, he’d bring me here for our father-daughter dinners when I made the honor roll or some other scholastic achievement. I enjoyed those times alone with him.” She had no idea why she was telling Damian anything about her relationship with her father. As if he would care.
She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry.”
His expression hadn’t changed, making it impossible to gauge what he was thinking. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this place held memories for you. Since we’re just about finished, we can leave.” His smile was barely there. “I do have somewhere else to take you, after all.”
Abby looked down at her half-eaten meal. No way could she stomach anything else. “Right. The surprise.” All she wanted to do was run home, curl up in bed, and cry but, she had a man to seduce. How she would manage that was beyond her.
